[Starchest]

**ALERT: This is not a problem, nor a rant, it's just a story.**

Hello CrackBerry,

I just thought I'd share something with you. And I feel like sharing it mainly because of the people in threads saying "I'm going android, or iPhone" or whatever. And me thinking "Why in the WORLD would they do this? Don't they know what they'll be missing"

Now, for you to understand you should know the following:

From where I am from, the entire country has about 4 million people, divided into 9 provinces in which just one (the capital) contains about 35-40% of the population, if not more.

Being such a small country, and being concentrated in just one city its very easy to know a lot of people, and get across them a lot. Everybody knows everybody, so to speak.

BlackBerries have become an illness, an addiction. EVERY single person who can afford it has a BlackBerry, and those who don't have one dream everyday of having one. As always there's always that "special" person who can afford it but don't have one just to be known as "different" or "unique" missing what I think is a great experience.

SMS's are about 0.15 cents each and there's no Unlimited Texts for $XX or whatever, minutes are 0.40 cents each on average, but a BlackBerry Unlimited BIS plan is just, *drum roll*, 9.99 a month.

The obvious key here, BBM. Unlimited 24/7 texting with no character restrictions, threaded style.

I sometimes laugh when people say they get advantage of BBM for having 5 coworkers and a couple of friends. Here (for what I previously stated) is normal to have 200-400 BBM contacts, and yes, most of the time you know everyone of them personally. And considering everyone has or wants a BlackBerry, this means you have access to contact everyone you know whenever you want (with delivery and read confirmation). Sometimes this is not so good as you know, but it's most of the time it is awesome.

This has it's downside too, I'd personally love to at least try an iPhone for some time, but I'll lose contact with 90% of the people I keep in touch with, people refuses to SMS because it's an extra cost, as well as spending their minutes. As crazy as it sounds I'm socially obligated to have a BlackBerry. But, oh well.

So, the main point of this is to share an experience, and thank RIM for keeping this country connected all the time, and make communication easier and cheaper for us.

P.D. I'm from Panama.

[MaestroDarius]

Same happens in Venezuela... A few friends of mine who live here in Spain but come from Venezuela told me EVERYONE saves money to buy a BlackBerry, even if they don't have plenty of money to live and eat easily... It's like a social tradition.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[dwaynewilliams#WN]

That is surreal. I would like to see this personally. Where is this place?

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Starchest]

http://www.mapsofworld.com/panama/ma...cation-map.jpg

[cajunrph]

May me it is a dumb question but does BBM work no matter what country the receiver is in. I mean can one send a BBM from the US to someone in Italy and it not cost the receiver extra money? I have a brother who goes to Thailand often and he doesn't want us to text him because it cost him extra to receive text over there. He has his US phone when he is there.

[Starchest]

May me it is a dumb question but does BBM work no matter what country the receiver is in. I mean can one send a BBM from the US to someone in Italy and it not cost the receiver extra money? I have a brother who goes to Thailand often and he doesn't want us to text him because it cost him extra to receive text over there. He has his US phone when he is there.

Yes, as long as you both have BIS in your respective countries, no extra cost.

[MaestroDarius]

If your brother goes to Thailand with his BB and activates his data while being there he will get a good surprise in his bill... Unless he activates data roaming. And I don't know if it would work there, if there are the same frequencies for GPRS over there.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com